A policeman who faked the theft of his own car and burned it for insurance money has escaped a jail sentence.
Scottish Crime Squad detective Alan Gavin, from Falkirk, will instead carry out community service thanks to a plea by his 14-year-old daughter.

Sheriff Craig Caldwell also said a "surprising" decision by the Crown Office and the procurator fiscal had led to a more lenient sentence.

If the case had gone before a jury, a prison sentence would have been likely.

Gavin, 43, one of only six qualified snipers in Central Scotland Police, acted after his two litre Nissan Primera GT blew a cylinder head on the M9 as he travelled home to Falkirk from a shopping trip to Edinburgh.

Lonely spot

After taking it to a garage, he found he could not afford the repair bill, so he decided to pretend the 150 brake-horsepower car had been stolen.

He arranged for his brother Hugh - also a Central Scotland Police constable - to tow it to a lonely spot near Armadale used by joyriders for dumping trashed cars where. Gavin then set it on fire.

He later claimed Â£4,225 from an insurance company and bought a replacement car.

At Falkirk Sheriff Court, father-of-two Gavin, whose career varied from acting as an armed guard at the Lockerbie trial in the Netherlands to serving as a community policeman, was sentenced to 240 hours' community service.